Guest Op-Ed: What can we do about the unsafe Dallas water?

The Fluoridation Program needs to end. It is that simple. A vote from the Dallas City Council can get this done!

There is nothing redeemable about adding neurotoxins to drinking water. It would be criminal for a citizen to add arsenic and lead to municipal drinking water but the DWU (Dallas Water Utilities) adds these toxins to drinking water every day. The hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFS) added to our municipal water to raise the fluoride level is invariably contaminated with arsenic, aluminum, lead and other poisons are known to cause neurological and other medical harm in consumers, despite its rubber stamp of approval.

Since December 2013, the Dallas City Council has turned a deaf ear to the pleas of several hundred citizens demanding an end to the unsafe and ineffective Fluoridation Program. We have asked the Dallas City Council repeatedly for an open public forum where stakeholders and experts could have input. They ignore our requests

The Dallas City Council cites the ADA and CDC endorsements of fluoridation as justification for their dismissal. But the CDC acknowledged in 1999, fluoride’s benefit comes from the topical application of fluoride to the teeth in high concentrations such as toothpaste. In that fashion, it poisons bacteria.

It is also important to note the ADA (American Dental Association) is a trade group rather than a scientific association. The ADA mission is to benefit dentists, not public health. The ADA marketing implies that dentists are unanimous in their support of fluoridation policy, but only about half of dentist practicing in the United States belong to the ADA and not all ADA dentists agree with the ADA pro-fluoridation policy. Moreover, several other dental and medical groups who do have a scientific mission oppose fluoridation, such as the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) who issued a position paper against fluoride use in September 2017.

“There is no need to fluoridate the water supplies. Fluoride in the water is essentially a drug, it’s an uncontrolled use of a drug…. The primary benefit of fluoride is topically, used as a topical addition, not internally.” – Dr. Michael D. Fleming, DDS, member of ADA, NCDA, IAOMT and FDA advisor on medical devices including dental products (2007)

Given the longevity of the fluoridation program, one would think that convincing statistical evidence must prove the program worked as promised. It doesn’t. Fluoridation for dental health is a 20th Century belief system – one that ignores 21st Century evidence of medical harm.

Could this be why our politicians fund the fluoridation program? Because they don’t want to admit that they have been on the wrong side of the issue for decades.

The Fluoridation Program needs to end. We must motivate the Dallas City Council to do their job as elected gatekeepers – to open their ears and minds to the testimony of citizens and modern science.

Please join us, the most vulnerable need us to speak for them. Tell the Dallas City Council to turn off the spigot.

Regina Imburgia is a local resident, for more information please visit DallasforSafeWater.com. NDG’s recent story has resulted in a lively discussion via our comment section. Recently Ms. Imburgia, who spoke before the Dallas City Council last fall on this issue, was invited to submit a guest editorial.